Now, being in the military is neccessarily a difficult, demanding and dangerous job, but...

There once was a highly trained and ALMOST well qualified sailor. There was a minor fault on his gun during a firing. To wit, the breech wouldn't swing up. A quick visual inspection revealed the problem. All fine so far but this is where it gets ugly. Neglecting any safety precautions, common sense, training, and the large, obvious, ON/OFF switch, this is what our once potential Admiral did this: He placed his body into the very cramped breech compartment between the slung breech and the barrel and quickly rectified the problem. Oops. Have you ever got your thumb caught in a mouse trap? Yes? I'm willing to bet you have never had several thousand newtons pushing your torso (and an incidentally snug fitting artillery round) into a 5 inch wide metal cylinder before though. Suffice to say, the gun was unharmed. Famous last words to the ops room? 'Standby, this'll only take a second'

I cannot give a location (somewhere in the pacific?), or even a date for this, and I welcome confirmation from other sources. But I do know that it is now illegal to be in the gun container by yourself. Further more, there is now a net that blocks access to the breech mechanism. This net, if not connected and blocking access, isolates it both electrically and hydraulically, to stop this happening again....

Submitted on 01/05/2007

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: USN Mk 42 5 inch gun manual

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Graham said:
Neutral: Lacks Excellence
I'm trying to visualize this. You don't mention the outcome. Or do we just 'imagine' it? Sounds like a safety mechanism needed to be in place from the get-go! Thanks for submitting this story.

James said:
Neutral: Other
Is this story taken from the 5"54 manual? Having spent a decade as a Naval Officer, I am quite familiar with gun mounts and their operation. I also imagine this happened quite often (shipboard accidents of all sorts are, unfortunately, quite common), but I'll keep this because it's an amusing "sea story" in and of itself! I don't know if we can award the "unknown sailor" an award, but this may prove amusing nonetheless!

Jack said:
Neutral: Personal Account
James, don't 5" rounds have a seperately loading powder charge? My experience is with Army artillery rather than Naval guns, but I can easily see this happening! Pity we can only give this a PA.

Chip said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Without colloboration this can only be a Personal Account but I rather liked the story and write up. Thanks, whoever you are.

Shadow said:
Neutral: Other
with our experienced naval moderator i agree... I have only seen artillery guns in the army... but its still common to get injured by ignoring the best of training. thanks for the submission

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